How to stop poisoning your dog in the name of prevention

Does my dog need heartworm medicine?

A common question, especially in Spring as the mosquitoes wake up. Mosquitoes carry the HW larva from a dog with heartworm to your dog.

Potentially.

Big Pharma would have you believe there's only one way to prevent that dark deed from happening: You'll need to give your dog a monthly "medicine," they say.

I think there's a better word here, as "medicine" sounds like it's something good for your dog. Helpful. Certainly NOT harmful.

It turns out, those monthly heartworm "medicines" like Heartgard, Trifexis, Sentinel, Interceptor, Revolution and many others are really nothing more than pesticides.

And they, like poisons everywhere, can themselves be deadly.

Wait. Heartworm medicine kills dogs?

I never knew that when they first came out with the heartworm drugs, back in the 80’s. I learned it when I left conventional practice and opened my eyes to what can hurt your dog, make her ill, and even kill her.

And boy, did I learn a lot when I dug into holistic vet practice!

What I’d like you to know, from my insider’s perspective, is how to keep your dog safe from heartworm without risking something far worse than a parasite.

The "Monthly Pill" Itself can Kill Your Dog!

That's sobering. You probably signed on for it because the disease of heartworm sounded pretty scary itself.

Worms in my dog's heart?? No Way!

The Backstory.

What I learned from years in holistic practice is that serious disease can and often does follow the use of monthly heartworm prevention drugs.

It turns out that the "medicines" commonly pushed on you as “heartworm prevention,” carry the risk of autoimmune disease.

Here, we’re talking about disease where your dog's immune system, the very system that's supposed to protect her, actually turns on her own cells, and destroys them like they were bad germs!

A Researcher Shares Her Research with Me

Dr. Jean Dodds has tracked this relationship. You may recognize her name. She's a world-renowned expert in hematology and immune diseases. She recently sent me a copy of the article she published in DVM Magazine years ago linking the two common heartworm preventatives to autoimmune disease and death.

Here are just a few examples from her research:

1. German Shepherd, sudden death 2 days after dose
2. Cocker Spaniel, seizures and high fever; sudden death
3. Mini Schnauzer, ataxia, sudden death; another who got ill after 3 years of use
4. Labrador mix, bone marrow failure, reactions after 2nd and 3rd dose
5. Irish Setter, AIHA (autoimmune hemolytic anemia) and death, after first dose

And on the list goes. Many of the cases she reports had no pre-existing illness, and got ill after the first dose to several doses later. Several had recurring sickness in the same week of each month, the very week they got their heartworm preventatives.

(I've seen that in my own patients. Talk about a "lightbulb moment!" Duh.)

As you might guess, your dog cannot live without red blood cells to carry oxygen, or platelets to help the blood clot properly.

Here’s how these diseases look. Your dog can show:

• Pale, or blue-spotted gums
• Sudden panting, as if exhausted, after very little exertion
• Weakness, often to the point of not getting up to eat
• Purple “bruise like” spots on the belly, ears, or anywhere else
• Bleeding from the nose, eyes, ears, bowels, or vagina

You can’t imagine the high-tech emergency that either of these autoimmune blood diseases sends your dog into.

This is ER time!

Treatment of dogs with this sort of disease often involves:

• repeated blood transfusions (think: risky and expensive)
• high doses of steroids or even more potent immune suppressors (side effects galore)
• hospitalization to monitor and keep your dog on I.V. drips (often in the ICU: bye bye credit card)

And what's the outcome after all this heroic and costly treatment?

(Quoted from a research paper on these diseases published in the Canadian Vet Journal)

You don’t want your dog getting autoimmune disease (or seizures!) from something as seemingly benign as a monthly heartworm prevention drug.

Let me ask a seemingly dumb question:

Are you with me?

It should be a no-brainer, but the makers of these neurotoxins (that paralyze the heartworm larvae) do an amazing job of making you sound smart and responsible for doing just that!

A little bit of poison is somehow okay for your dog?

Not in my world!

Your dog deserves better. And you are smarter than they give you credit for, those marketing scoundrels!

Q: Natural heartworm prevention for dogs -- Possible?

If you ask your conventional veterinarian if natural heartworm prevention is an option for your dog, odds are high you'll hear "Impossible!"

I've searched that term now and then, and the search results are disappointing.

But then, what would you expect from PetMD and the American Heartworm Society, tied to the Big Pharma pesticide makers as they are?

But, as a homeopathic vet colleague of mine called out decades ago,

"Those who say it can't be done need to get out of the way of those who are doing it!"

When Results of Decades speak a Different Reality

When I formulated this drug-free heartworm prevention way back in the 1980s, I lived in Hawaii, where heartworm was present year-round. I reasoned that, in the natural world, other canine species were not dying of this parasite.

I found research to corroborate this fact.

And, since your dog is such a close relative of the wolf (99% genetic overlap), natural heartworm prevention for dogs should be entirely possible.

And my protocol has indeed been working ever since, resulting in negative heartworm tests year over year in hundreds, maybe thousands of dogs.

People write me, tickled that they avoided the toxicity of conventional heartworm medications while their pets remained safely heartworm-free.

-- Rhoda Clark

So, with multiple reports like Rhoda's over many years, I'll ask you:

Is natural heartworm prevention for dogs possible?